The Reason
by Dallirious
Summary: They each had their flaws. Bellatrix was impulsive, a trait that didn't bode well in high society. Narcissa was vain which, as luck would have it, did. Andromeda, however, was stuck with bad timing.


**Rating:** Teen  
><strong>Characters:** Andromeda Tonks, Bellatrix Lestrange  
><strong>Word Count:<strong> 668  
><strong>Prompt:<strong> Surprise!  
><strong>Summary:<strong>They each had their flaws. Bellatrix was impulsive, a trait that didn't bode well in high society. Narcissa was vain which, as luck would have it, did. Andromeda, however, was stuck with bad timing.

**A/N:**I wrote this ages ago and I'm only now posting it. Enjoy.

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><p>Timing had never been her strong suit, but this matter needed to be timed perfectly. It was unfortunate for her that the right moment never arose.<p>

News of the engagement had spread like wildfire throughout the Pureblood community. It was a cause for celebration, the promise of a continued bloodline. Unfortunately it then ran into the preparation of another celebration. Her sister's twenty-first birthday.

It hadn't been her intention to even suggest her thoughts until the right moment.

However, fate had other ideas.

"Well?" The sharp voice cracked through the night air like a whip. "Are you going to tell me what's up your arse? You've been in the clouds for months, looking like someone snapped your wand – which, may I remind you, was an accident – and now I'm trying to enjoy my party but all I can focus on is the fact that you're not having fun. What is it some sort of surprise? I'm not allowed to know till later? You're driving me insane, Andi. I have a ballroom full of guests, a fiancé that can't keep his hands off me, and a sister that is ruining everything. Either fake it or leave already, because I can't take much more of this."

"That's just it, Bella, I'm leaving," she responded before she could stop herself.

It took a moment before her sister realised what had been said. She opened her mouth to respond and then closed it again. Her eyes narrowed and she turned to walk back inside. Moments after she disappeared she was stalking back out onto the balcony that joined their bedrooms, stopping so close to her younger sister that she almost pushed her over the edge. "What do you mean 'leaving'?" she asked, trying to wrap her head around it. "If you don't like the party you don't have to leave, just don't come down."

"No," she took a shaky breath and looked her sister directly in the eye. "I mean that I'm packing my things and I won't be coming back."

Suddenly there was laughter, hysterical and unbridled laughter. She held her stomach and doubled over. The tension that had been building up inside her for weeks flooded out in one simple action. "And where are you going to go, Princess?" She cried out, wiping a tear from her cheek. "Stay at the Leaky Cauldron for the night? We're not children any more, Andi, I doubt Mother and Father will care..."

"Bellatrix, I'm marrying Ted Tonks," she said firmly, her hands gripping the balcony as she waited for the inevitable. "We've been seeing each other since our final year at Hogwarts. He asked me to marry him and I told him I'd think about it. And I have been thinking about it, it's all I've been thinking about for months. I tried to talk to you, but you never have time for me anymore or Cissy. You're too busy running off and doing Merlin knows what with Rodolphus and Lucius... and Evan! I wanted to talk to you about this, I hadn't made my decision, but now I know. Because ever since you left Hogwarts I've been nothing but a burden to you. Suddenly I'm not good enough for you, and suddenly I'm not worthy to share a room with you. Seventeen years, then you just cut me out for no reason."

The laughter had stopped abruptly. With each accusation that spilled from her sister's lips she had stumbled backward towards the door, towards the escape. She stared at the girl opposite her, almost her mirror, as she managed to find her way to the door. Those eyes she had seen almost every day of her life, the eyes she would continue to see in every reflective surface she passed until the day she died. "Now I have a reason," she choked out, her hands pressing against her stomach. She stumbled backwards into the safety of her bedroom and then fled into the darkness.

"Surprise," Andromeda whispered into the cold night air.


End file.
